Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-05-07

RELIGIOUS SCENES In CHINA.
q Picturssque Church Beexar-Carryinx
Out . Dreadful Vow.
sChurch-begging" is very common in
China The temples advertise their
wants by posting on walls in the neigh
berhood square pieces Of yellow paper,
whereon is the exact Chinese equivalent
of the scriptural, @Ask and ye shall re-
iceive, !" together with the name and 10
cation of the temple where prayers are
always answered.
| But there are also more personal
forms of begging. The writer Of an az
ticle in the Youths Companion has
seen in Picking a priest whose cheeks
had been pierced, and the teeth
knocked out so that an iron rod, as
large as ones middle finger, could be
passed through, to projec. an inch or
two beyond either cheek. An iron
half-c:rcle was hinged to each end of
This, and passed around the back of the
priests head. attached to the half
circle was an. iron chain, which was so
long as to drag on the ground several
feet liehind him.
| His business was to go from house to
house, beating a small drum, asking
help to repair a temple. Sympathy
would be wasted on him. He was "pro-
fessional church-debt LITTER" who had
monthly wages and commission on his
collections-an the rod and chain were
his stock in trade.
There is another way, still more Pc
culiar. A priest standsin small box
like structure, placed in front of q
temple, through the boards of which
spikes have been driven, 80 that the
imprisoned priest can move no part of
his body, except his right arm, without
being pricked by spike. With his
right hand he rings a bell to draw at
tention to his pitiable condition.
Charitable persons give so much for the
privilege of drawing out spike.
The highest-priced spikes are those
which point at the vital parts of the
body. The priest is supposed to stand
in his kennel day and night until all the
spikes have been bought and drawn,
but no one believes that he really does
so.
| A single incident will show how
much hardship and self-inficted suffer
ing some of these heather will undergo
to fulfill religious vow. One intoler-
ably hot and dusty afternoon in 1871 the
writer was resting at wayside tea
house to the southwest of Picking and
saw approaching q man and woman.
The man would first take one long step,
then bring his other foot up and meas
ures his whole length in the road.
] Having knocked his head three times
on the ground, he rose, took another
step, and again Frustrated himself. The
woman was his wife, and was waiting
upon him. In answer to questions, he
said that he had made q VOW that if
Buddha would restore to health his son,
who was desperately sick, he would
make pilgrimage to Wu-tai-shan and
home again, a step and prostitution all
the way.
Not more than three miles could be
made in day. He had travelled about
600 of the 1000 miles of his double
journey, and would be two years longer
in completing his VOW. As he was rs
years old, and almost worn out, it was
easy to see that he would not live to
fulfill it. A callous lump as large as an
egg projected from his forehead, raised
by his knocking his head upon the dusty
road. Yet this man was shocked and
angry at suggestion that he should
abandon his useless pilgrimage, and
passed out Of sight measuring the road
with his infirm body.